Not only is it the best in Latin America, by several measures, since Augusto Pinochet, it's made the most progress in improving educational outcomes, by introducing competition. Only about 45% of Chilean students attend public high schools. Free to choose (thanks to Chile's education law that pays schools for the number of students who attend of their own free will).

If you're a dedicated left-winger, that is Baaaaaad;

Judith Rodríguez, a city councillor in Cerro Navia municipality, said that the government’s policy of subsidizing private schools does not give students in her neighborhood educational freedom — in fact, it gives them just the opposite.

“The economic instability in this community is atrocious,” Rodríguez, who is also the leader of the Cerro Navia Teacher’s Guild, told The Santiago Times. “That means that, necessarily, children have to receive an education in public schools so [their families] can pay the bills. Therefore, as authorities, we are called to strengthen public education, not make it disappear.”

The municipal government is closing some underperforming public schools, and will pay for the bus fare for their former students to go to better public schools. That's what is being called making public education disappear.

After we educate the American journalists--Clayton Wickham studies psychology at the University of Texas at Austin and the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. He has written for The Santiago Times and The Daily Texan about a variety of topics, including politics, education, psychology and economics. He is also a Joynes Creative Writing Fellow at UT Austin.--maybe we should start on the Chilean adults who are quoted in the paper.